Flooded basement in Wiltshire

The property owner has lived there for about 25 years and never had a problem with the basement flooding before until recently. They didn’t actually know that the basement had flooded until the electricity went off and they couldn’t get it back on, a power cable was on the floor and had got wet and this was causing the electric to trip.

So why did it flood?

We tested the water to see if its tap water or ground water, it was ground water!

This particular area has seen lots of rain recently and I have personally seen and fixed lots of flooded basements in this area and I think it was only a matter of time before this one did. This area has impervious soil which causes perched water tables, this then seeps into the basement and causes flooding. Even in permeable subsoil ground water requires time to drain away and this can result in limited pressure periodically coming to bear against the structure.

The neighbouring basements are either tanked or fitted with the more modern cavity drainage membrane systems which consists of a dimpled flexible high-densisty polymer sheet, which is fixed against the internal face of of a structure and is designed to intercept water penetrating the structure and direct it to a drainage system.

All basement waterproofing should be designed to BS 8102: 2009 which is the code of practice for protection of below ground structures against water from the ground.

If you have a flooded cellar-basement or need a cellar-basement waterproofed contact Complete Preservation and we can guide you through the process.